Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, the Trump administration and Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, have been on a crusade to find “waste” within the government. 

This “waste” includes the National Institutes of Health, which fund medical research at various institutions, including research at universities, medical schools and hospitals, among others. The NIH funds projects such as the development of messenger ribonucleic acid vaccines, cancer research and research of other diseases. Overall, the NIH provides $35 billion to fund 50 thousand projects, supporting 300 thousand researchers at 2,500 institutions. These funds include $25 billion to fund research and $9 billion to fund indirect costs that are essential to the functioning of research, such as “buildings, utilities, and support staff.” 

Early into his second term, Trump has paused the funding process for “16,000 grant applications vying for around $1.5 billion in NIH funding.” This decision may have implications here at Brandeis. 

On Feb. 10 Brandeis joined more than 20 top universities in filing a lawsuit against the Department of Health & Human Services and the NIH. The suit challenges what it describes as “a flagrantly unlawful action by the National Institutes of Health (“NIH”) and the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) that, if allowed to stand, will devastate medical research at America’s universities.” 

At the start of the administration, Trump and his allies proposed cutting some of this funding as a measure against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, which is a set of programs across the government and private sectors that try to recruit equally qualified candidates from underrepresented backgrounds. The Republican party argues that these programs provide unequal representation, calling it “reverse discrimination.” Republicans believe there is a lot of DEI work going on in the government and use it to blame what they see as “corruption” in the federal government.

In a Feb. 27 interview with The Justice, Prof. James Harber (BIOL), Director and Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center, explained that across-the-board spending cuts like the ones that Musk and Trump are proposing threaten one of Brandeis’ biggest strengths: life science research. The funding is vital to the many labs on campus including Haber’s research on deoxyribonucleic acid reparation, which has applications in cancer research. 

According to Haber, with the proposed spending cuts, Brandeis lose seven to eight million dollars on research due to the University not being able to spend congressionally approved funds. This money is primarily used for paying employees including postdoctorals, graduate and undergraduate students and support staff and costs in “facilities and administration” which support people “financially managing the grant,” people providing chemical, radiation, environmental safety and building repairs. Without these funds, Brandeis would not be able to fully fund government-mandated regulations to keep labs safe. Indirect costs funded by the government at Brandeis include 37.5% of funding, according to Haber. He said if these costs were reduced, it wouldn’t be clear if the University had another way to fund the grants. Haber said that even if there are inefficiencies in the system, across-the-board spending cuts, like the ones that Musk and Trump are proposing could lead to a loss of programming funding. These effects have already been seen at the NIH directly which has led to workshops being canceled, review of new grant proposals, halting the publishing of regulations, publishing of regulations, guidance documents, grant announcements, social media posts, press releases, and other “communications” and the canceling of speaking engagements. Any exception must be approved by an administration appointee.

All of the funds Brandeis receives from the NIH are still being funded due to a temporary restraining order put in place by the lawsuit. In addition, across the country, many other programs that are not being funded right now have had their funding reduced, which could lead to a slowdown in medical research and breakthroughs for diseases. If these delays were to happen at Brandeis, it would cause researchers to find work elsewhere due to not being able to fully fund and conduct high-level research. To help prevent this from happening, Brandeis, along with a list of other universities is suing the federal government on the grounds that they are legally bound to fund congressionally approved funds and that it is vital to their research. 

Brandeis’ funding from the National Institutes of Health has been able to fund groundbreaking research that has led faculty members to win multiple awards including Prof. Michael Roshash (BIOL), who won the National Nobel Prize and Prof. Eve Marder (NEUR), who won the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience. Without the support of the NIH, according to Haber, Brandeis would not have the strength in its life sciences department.